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Advice for practicing pranayama

True sādhanā is devotion from the heart, not mere ritual or fleeting emotion. The Pāṇḍavas failed to invite a ṛṣi for their yajña by citing their lack of performed sacrifices. Draupadī succeeded by declaring that each barefoot step taken toward a sage is itself a hundred yajñas, demonstrating the power of sincere reverence. Similarly, an unlearned brother who held only to God's name could walk on water through devotion, while his scholarly brother could not. Success comes from inner feeling, not external knowledge. Even the science of breath, prāṇāyāma, must be understood and practiced correctly from the heart, not just mechanically. Its purpose is to connect with the universal prāṇa that sustains all life.

"Each and every step taken toward sādhus or ṛṣis is equivalent to one hundred yajñas."

"Your mantras have no power, but you... you have this power that exists nowhere else in the world."

Filming location: Strilky, Czech Republic

It is said that a profound teaching will emerge in this discourse, and we shall see it in time. After addressing God—be it Bhagavān Rāma or Bhagavān Kṛṣṇa—the scriptures speak of all traditions: the Vedas, the ṛṣis, and the kings. Following the events of the Mahābhārata, the Pāṇḍavas returned. It is said that after their victory, they were instructed to perform a yajña. Only upon completing this yajña would they be truly successful. There is a particular yajña that is not easy for anyone to accomplish. Among the Pāṇḍavas, it was decided: "Let us go and invite a great ṛṣi. Please, one of the brothers should go, offer respects, seek blessings, and request his presence for the yajña." The first brother went. The ṛṣi asked, "Have you performed a hundred yajñas?" The brother replied, "We have not." The ṛṣi said, "Then I cannot come." Another brother went. The ṛṣi asked, "Have you performed one hundred yajñas?" Again, the answer was no, and he was sent away. Likewise, all four Pāṇḍava brothers tried and failed. What was to be done? Then Draupadī said, "I will go." She declared, "Gurudev already perceives your intent. We must perform the Aśvamedha Yajña." She went to the ṛṣi. He asked her, "Have you already performed a hundred yajñas?" She replied, "Gurudev, Ṛṣi, only a hundred?" He asked, "You have done that?" She said, "Thousands and thousands! How? O Ṛṣi, O Gurudev, do you see that I came barefoot? Each and every step taken toward sādhus or ṛṣis is equivalent to one hundred yajñas. I have come from afar. Count the thousands of steps I have taken. Here I am. That yajña has been performed. I have earned this respect. Please come to our yajña." The ṛṣi responded, "This is it. My daughter, you are right. I must come. I will come barefoot as well, for you have performed that many yajñas." She said, "Anyone who goes toward the guru or a ṛṣi with such feeling performs yajñas for many, many yugas." This is how we engage in sādhanā, but we must perform it from the heart. Many people are sometimes happy, sometimes unhappy, sometimes crying. These are just bubbles in water. You cannot attain success with such fleeting states. Yes, you should strive. Even each and every breath is prāṇa within. In the morning, you learned that it pervades the whole universe. If you, or if I, act from the heart, then there is no problem. Jealousy, anger, hatred, or crying over such things—you will not be successful, my dear. One who merely cries only sheds tears that fall. If you dwell in that feeling, your heart grows weaker. Your breath, too, will become less and less. But if we hold that reverence for Gurudev, Ṛṣi, or God—whatever name you give, in any country, any religion, anywhere—then we are successful. The Pāṇḍavas lost their way. But Draupadī knew. Through her devotion, she said, "Gurudev, I came without shoes, with hands folded in reverence." With the mantra "Gurudev, Gurudev, Gurudev"—that is all. That is called true sādhanā. That is called perfection. Have we achieved it? We have not. There is a story I will tell. In one family, there were two brothers. One brother studied diligently from primary school through university and beyond. How much he learned! The other brother was not learned. He did not wish to learn. A little was enough for him. He said, "What will I do with endless learning? My life is passing." Many people learn until they are 20, 40, 50, even 60 or 70 years old, and still learning, and then they die. So what is the point? He pondered this, but he held to one thing: the name of God. He was a Śiva bhakta. There was a very large lake, about two or three kilometers long and one kilometer across. The elder, learned brother would occasionally visit his younger brother in the forest on the other side. He would bring fruits and nuts. A brother is a brother. The younger brother would run to greet him, saying, "Hey, brother!" They would embrace, sit, and talk. At midday or midnight, during the time for Śiva temple pūjā, the younger brother would stand for prayers. The elder brother, because of his sibling, would also stand there. The younger one engaged in bhajans and satsaṅg. After about half an hour, they would sit together again. The elder brother reflected that his younger sibling had wasted his human life. He had not studied. He had no knowledge, no science. He did not speak of inner matters. After another half hour, the elder brother wished to say something. He said, "My brother, you know I love you. I always come to see you. But you have not studied anything. And what are you doing with this pūjā? You cannot even recite the prayers correctly; there are two or three mistakes." The younger brother asked, "What did Gurudev say?" The elder replied, "You should have these words correct inside." So he taught him, and the younger brother learned, saying, "Thank you very much," and so on. The elder brother was happy that he could teach his brother something. Around four in the afternoon, the elder brother said, "Now I must go, brother. I must take the boat." The younger brother said, "I will come with you." So both brothers went together, speaking, and stood near the shore. The boat arrived. The younger brother made praṇām to the elder. The elder brother said, "Brother, please come home sometimes. Be careful. If you need anything, send a message or come yourself. I will give you everything. A brother is a brother. If you need to know who a true brother is, look to Bhagavān Rāma and his brothers—Bharata and Rāma." The younger brother stood there watching his elder brother depart. Suddenly, he forgot the mantra. What did he do? The younger brother ran on the water, calling, "Brother, brother!" until the elder brother reached the shore. The younger brother was running on the water. The elder brother turned and saw. What was he doing? He hurried back. The younger brother came out from the water onto the beach. "Brother, brother, I have forgotten the mantra you taught me." The elder brother said, "My brother, your mantras have no power, but you... you have this power that exists nowhere else in the world. I have learned so much, yet I cannot take a single step on the water." The elder brother said, "I bow down to you, my brother. You have learned everything." It was like this. Do you remember? Do you respect the younger brother? Yes or no? If you do not acknowledge the younger brother, you are like a monkey. We have such tendencies. We sit here like monkeys again. Come on, that is not good. You have disturbed all the mosquitoes here. That is sādhanā, O God. God does not tell us only to go to school. He says to go to the temple, go to your father, go to your mother. The best temple is your mother, so do not disregard your mother. And the pujārī in the temple is your father. Both mother and father are God. If you honor this, then your child will be more divine than they are. What knowledge can we possess? Therefore, we should learn what is within the inner heart. Yes, sometimes things go wrong because of ignorance. You know the story I told a few days ago. There was a man who was a little lacking in knowledge, not mentally ill, but he would take things, steal, because he had nothing. People would beat him and mistreat him. A Mahātma Guru came and saw him being abused. Everyone said, "You are stupid," and so on. No one respected him. The guru approached and said, "Oh, my son, what has happened to you?" The man explained. The guru said, "No, no. They are all not good; you are good." He said, "Gurujī, yes." The guru affirmed, "You are the best, but these people are stupid. They have treated you like this." Other people came and said, "Sādhu, why are you talking like this? You are not a sādhu." He replied, "Yes. All of you are not sādhus. He is the sādhu, through and through." Do you have any heart for the person? That is all. When someone is in a difficult situation, even if we know it is a mistake, we can help clarify things again. That is what is good for a human being. This is very, very important. So, what shall I say about Gurujī? We come to Gurudev. The Pāṇḍavas, the four brothers, could not accomplish anything. But who was their wife? Draupadī. She had the heart, and she knew, "I can move that Ṛṣi." And the Ṛṣi understood. It is rightly written, "I will again be forgotten after a long, long time." This is what we have not yet fully expressed. Mahāprabhujī was observing, for I wish you all to sing "Mahāprabhujī praṇām," and we all offer praṇām to Omahāprabhujī, our Gurujī, or God—whichever God you believe in, it is okay. But we should do it; otherwise, it is not done. If someone comes to your house, do you say, "Hello, friend, how are you? How are you, sister? How are you, brother? Hi"? Some say hi, some say khai, some say bye, but they say something. So we also say it. Om Namaḥ Śrī Prabhu Dīpanārāyaṇam. Om Namaḥ Śrī Prabhu Dīpanārāyaṇam. Hama Śabdhasa Prabhu Śaraṇa Paranam. Hama Śabdhasa Prabhu Śayadam. Om Namaḥ Śrī Prabhudīp. Hama Śabdhasa Prabhu Śaraṇa Paranam. Om Namo. Om is the eternal Oṁkāra with Bindu. Nityadhyanti Yoginam. Each and every yogī also offers praṇām to the Oṁkāra Bindu. What is the meaning of Bindu? It is Bindu, and all yogīs bow before Oṁ. We make Oṁ. We draw Om, mātrā and bindu. Mātrā and bindu. This is our Gurudev. All Gurudevs, all Bhagavān, all God. You say Amen. What is Amen? Amen comes from Om. Allah—it is also Allah, yes? It is the same language, that is all. So, OM NAMO ŚRĪ PRABHU. ŚRĪ means prosperity, happiness from the heart, always joy. Do not hold in your heart, in your thoughts, "I am very poor, I am not good, I have many problems." He is not. OM NAMAḤ PRABHU ŚRĪ DĪP is Bhagavān Mahāprabhujī, and Mahāprabhujī is the incarnation of Viṣṇu, Śiva. That means we all, we and all. We and all. So, it means all. All together in oneness. Ham sab, ham sab, everyone is your devotion. So we are all, but so many, yet we become all one. And God is that one, but He is all in one of us. So we can say we are more the victors, not God. God was only one. But we all come together, and we become all again one. We put all into one, and what did we do to you? We made you all one, one, so God just ran away. Where did He run? Into our heart, in one day. So you see, God said, "Yes, my children." You see, a little child will cry and so on, but we are the victors. Parents, they will say, okay. For example, we have a little child here, only two years old, but she always talks. "Svāmījī, počkej." For my shoes, you know. You see that little children can teach many languages. So we are. Om Namaḥ Śrī Prabhu Dīpa Nārāyaṇa. Om Namah Siri Prabhu Deepana Ham Sab Das Prabhu Saran Parayanam Saran Parayanam Om Namah Siri Prabhu Deepana. In this way, we practice. Last week, two weeks ago, I gave some time to teaching as well. Now, in the body, we have these two holes in our nose—both nostrils. What are we mostly doing? Inhaling, exhaling. This little space. They operate day and night, controlling our whole body, even our heart—everything—inhale and exhale. There is a saying: it is not only the nostrils, but we also breathe through others. Let us say through the mouth. Okay, so the mouth and the nostrils. But these can also be blocked, so how are we inhaling? We know that each and every hair of ours is inhaling—not only the hair you see, but their roots. From these hair roots, we take in prāṇa. We have these five principles that give life, and we feel—we feel pain, no pain, etc. When we feel the prāṇa, we are alive. When we do not, we are dead. But still, our hair is living. We can burn it, but we will not feel the prāṇa in that part. We know that our hair gives us immense energy. Some people like their hair. Some sādhus like it more and more. Some like to have longer hair. There are people who stand, and their hair goes down to the ground. They are living. So there are certain things. This prāṇa is in our body, and it goes through the air, the hair, and the skin. Now, where? Someone told me a story long ago—I do not know if it is true. It was said that in France, kings everywhere—kings think, "Now we are only Bhagavān, the rest are nothing." So, one king from another kingdom came as a guest. Some people were hunting deer and such. At the palace gate of that palace, there were two, they said, beautiful women. But tell me, who is not a beautiful woman? All are very beautiful. God has made them so. When God creates, He creates only beauty. Anyway, they made a liquid of gold and, except for the nostrils and eyes, covered the whole body with gold and stood them at the gate—golden ladies. That is why. Some are iron ladies, others are golden ladies. But you know, after some time they died because they could not breathe through the skin and everything. It is said—I do not know—but many said yes. That if they were kings, they had those golden ladies. Do you know someone like this? You cannot show it. Please look like that. So, one, two, three, four, five. Hive, yes. That is why doctors are the dancers of our bhakti. And I am always saying, please, I do not want to put gold everywhere. So this is the life inside. Prāṇa is everywhere. Prāṇ, prāṇ. That is why we need air. We need water. But not only water in water; in the air there is water. If everything is very dry, we die. All five elements are very important. But in yogic practice, if you want to know why you are doing it, and if you are doing it, then how you are doing it is very important. First is the nostril. In the nostril we have the breath—inhalation and exhalation. After that, we call the breath through our mouth, then through the ears, and all through the skin. But again we come to these three nostrils. One is Iḍā and Piṅgalā. You know all. This is a Sanskrit or yogic name. We can say the left nostril and the right nostril. This breath from the nostrils goes through air, energy, to the brain, and then to the whole body. When we inhale, for certain minutes we inhale automatically, and that goes to the left hemisphere. But it is not only going to the whole brain and body; it goes this way, this side. Then it suddenly changes, and we breathe from the right one. Then for one minute, two minutes, it comes from both nostrils. So this is why there are three nāḍīs, and these three nāḍīs are very much connected through the breath and come to the heart. This is yogic science I am speaking of. I am not a doctor, nor a worker, nor anything else. But it is that which I am telling. Finally, we have to go through that path which I am describing. Now we call it in American science, modern science. Many people learn—doctors and many others. But they can only determine two things: is it life or death? After death is finished, concerning life or what lies beyond, they have said nothing. But in yogic science, there is more. Someone may believe or not believe, but it is certain. So always, even when it is very cold—about 20, 40, or 14 degrees—you still open your window for a while. Yes? So breath is living breath. What we are doing is life. We are little, tiny creatures in this space. Again and again, it is said—many people sometimes show on Facebook, maybe in China or elsewhere—that a person one hundred, two hundred, or one thousand years old is still alive. Their eyes may wander, but the prāṇa is still inside. I have not seen it, but I see many years of life. Yes, more than 5,000 years. I think 5,000 or 500 trees. They are life. We do not live that long, but that is also life. They are alive; they are living. So it is prāṇa. So it is prāṇāyāma. Now, why are yogīs doing this? You are practicing; I am practicing. You did not; I did not. We do not want to do, etc. So why is it that we inhale left, right? Then left and right, and right and left, and left and left, right, left, right, and so on? Inhale, exhale, take a long breath, exhale completely out, and stay long. So many things we do, as described in many yoga books: inhale through the nose, exhale through the leg—it is said to be very good. I also say it is good, and it is the truth, but still I do not know for what purpose. We have to learn this. So anulom vilom, yes, that different kind of breath. First, we practice exhaling and inhaling only with the left nostril. This is what we call cleansing. Then, blocking the left nostril, we inhale and exhale with the right nostril—inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale. Now, we know that. Then we take the hand down and breathe with both nostrils. It is good. No problem. But how are we talking, and why? First is purification from one nostril. What do we call that in yoga? Śodhana. Inhalation, only inhalation. Then inhale through the left nostril and exhale with the right nostril. That means bedan? Make the hole. After that, we practice Anulom Vilom. But why? What is anulom? In Indian languages, some village languages, you know? Anulom, alulom, alu—take the alus. You know what is alu? Potatoes. So let us come tomorrow with the subject of our prāṇa—prāṇāyāma. It is better to inhale more breath properly than to do the exercise. So, it is better to learn how to breathe correctly than to exercise. It is more important to breathe correctly than to exercise. Then there are different kinds of techniques, but why? Why do we do this? And sometimes we should not do these exercises? For example, if we have a heartbeat issue, it is not good, or we may risk a heart attack. That is why we should not do it. But they say we should clean the lungs and the heart. You could harm the heart. So, Anulom Vilom sādhanā, and after the two parts of prāṇāyāma, Kapālabhāti and bastrika. So, bāstrīkā and kapālabhāti. Both could lead to a heart attack. So do not learn this. But if you practice, this can also restore our heart—but slowly. We fill air into a balloon, or into your bike or car tire, slowly. If you explode it once, the whole thing will explode. Therefore, we should know when, which exercise, and for how long we should do it. That we should know. In that, only the prāṇāyāma—if you wish, I can... For one year you could just learn this exercise. So, in our kriyānusṭhān, what are you doing? You know we have only five minutes: how to do prāṇāyāma, which side, what side? Do you have this? Anuṣṭhāna, head up, please. Thank you. Now, from this, how? Who is doing our Kṛiyānuṣṭhāna now? You are doing this prāṇāyāma. Do you know why, for what purpose, this and that? Head up. Because your teacher said, "Now inhale, left hand for five minutes, then three minutes, and then..." Do you know that? Why this timing? So, hands up, please, who does not know. Yes. Even I have forgotten now. Why have I forgotten? Because you forgot to raise your hand up, so raise your hand up. If it is real, and if not, also good. Therefore, what a nice... We are anywhere. We are sitting on a boat, going like this and like that. We do not know what it is, why the waves in the ocean are like this. So what we must come to is only this: whoever is on the boat—he or she—they are moving; they know what to do and how to navigate. That is why, in three to five years, you become the yogī. They become the teacher. And who is that? In which school? In which school? In which university? Yoga in? What is that? What is this? Yoga in the lower body.

This text is transcribed and grammar corrected by AI. If in doubt what was actually said in the recording, use the transcript to double click the desired cue. This will position the recording in most cases just before the sentence is uttered.

The text contains hyperlinks in bold to three authoritative books on yoga, written by humans, to clarify the context of the lecture:

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